XIX.] IRON FOUNDRIES. 257 



ing them by the strong arm when alone ; but I was determined July, 

 that the English colors, which had brought freedom to so many ^^'^^- 

 on both coasts of Africa, should not be disgraced in the centre 

 of the continent. 



In the end the slaves were set at liberty, and a hollow peace 

 was patched up between us ; but I decided to have nothing fur- 

 ther to do with Muinyi Hassani on reaching Nyangwd. 



The following day we arrived at the village of Manyara, 

 standing among many others over which he was really, though 

 not nominally, the chief. All had two or three foundries in 

 them, upward of thirty feet long by twenty wide, with low 

 walls and an enormously high roof. In the centre was a pit, 

 six feet wide, four deep, and twenty long, rather shallower at 



HILLS ON EOAD TO MANYARA. 



one end than the other. Across this, about six feet from the 

 shallow end, was built a' clay furnace four feet wide. The 

 smaller of the two divisions of the pit was used as a stoke-hole, 

 while the ore and slag ran into the other, and round the sides 

 were small divisions containing charcoal and iron ore. 



They sometimes use as many as a dozen pair of bellows at 

 one time in order to make a sufficient blast. Their bellows are 

 formed of two upright and parallel shallow wooden cylinders, 

 with vents leading into one nozzle, which is protected by clay 

 from the effects of the fire. These cylinders are covered with 

 grass -cloth having a stick three feet long fastened into the 

 centre, and are worked by holding one stick in each hand, and 



